Loafing...
A major consideration of lockdown was how to fill my time....with lack of full-time work, how would I occupy the hours in the day with activities which would be engaging, productive and enjoyable. In the beginning, I looked forward to 3 p.m. - the local wine store delivered. As time rolled along, I began to playback previous work-life experiences in my head, along with finally thumbing through the myriad of art books and catalogs I collected over time and received as gifts. Ruth Starr Rose (1887 - 1965) Revelations of African American Life in Maryland and the World, by Barbara Paca became an all time favorite. It remains a staple on my coffee table.
During these days of loafing, I soon came to realize the many past work experiences I let slip by without really paying too much attention, beyond working to deliver results. For one of these recollections, Miami collector Ira Hall’s voice rang in my head, “Young lady are you taking the time to appreciate your surroundings and this experience?” It was a quick walk-through of Design Miami 2011. The true answer was “no, not really”. I did not give myself permission. I was hyper-focused on delivering on my work of supporting a sponsor of the main art fair, with public relations. communications and planning three major events that year - a collectors breakfast conversation, an international collectors dinner and an art market poolside cocktail.
Filling time during this pandemic, I would now recount work experiences, over 15 years, on the phone with good friends or in conversations with my husband. Why did I not do that before? I did not want to seem as if I was bragging. My grandfather’s voice is always present, ”walk humbly and with pride”. Plus these experiences represented work, I did not allow myself to enjoy them, they were not intended for me, I thought.
How does one go about recounting the benefits of attending and working art fairs such as the top one in Maastricht? Well, like a love story, where you lose your breath while walking through the minimalist, but oh so sublime booth of Axel Vervoodt. Or discovering El Anatsui's masterful work with a knowledgeable colleague. “That is what I imagined Joseph’s coat in the Bible looked like”, I said when I saw an example of El Anatsui’s work. “Look again, it is made from bottle caps”, she said. I almost fainted. After those encounters that year, I made sure to arrive early to that fair so that I could saunter through the elegant booths before the reported more than 75,000 throng of attendees arrived.
Working at the V.I.P Lounge of Art Basel in Basel was another level, the task was to communicate the company's initiatives to bring collectors’ attention to protecting their art. My favorite topic profiled over the years, “Walking on Water”, where the company’s marketing department created a waterlogged walkway in the VIP Lounge of the Swiss fair. This served to drive art collectors attention to being aware of and avoiding the different ways water and moisture could damage artworks.
Turns out, there were other topics to profile over 15 years, most memorable: spotlighting the Italian artist Fabio Viale and his marble mobiles; collecting classic cars; caring for photography; avoiding damages while transporting art; a cabinet of curiosities; an art collectors survey and for the U.S. Art Basel iteration, I loved communicating about the artist Wendell Castle and his designs, in collaboration with then design house R 20th Design, now R & Company, under the direction and tutelage of Evan Snyderman the house’s expert on Castle. I also now realize how lucky I was for the opportunity to learn and communicate about the very special design movements housed at the time in the collection of Miami’s Wolfsonian-FIU.
If you’ve heard enough, I am just getting started. I will say though, I do fondly recall one of the initiatives for which I was thoroughly engaged, productive and enjoyed working on was organizing a Top 100 International Collectors Dinner, which was held at the Versace Mansion during an evening of Art Basel Miami Beach week, I believe in 2009. The evening’s entertainment included young violinists from Miami, (thanks Peggy Hollander). They serenaded international collectors under drenching canopies amid downpours of torrential rain that night. While collectors from around the world met, greeted each other and exchanged opinions and ideas about the December art fairs, art talks, events and artists of the day, I stood behind floor-to-ceiling curtains to shelter from the rain drops and to watch and listen to the the sounds of the evening including the splattering rain. I still receive compliments about that event today.
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Visual: the courtyard of theVersace Mansion, Miami from the Gallery of the property‘s site, now called The Villa.